DISCOVER-AQ: Ground Site Air Quality Measurements for Satellite Validation in Texas

NASA's four-year DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected ground-based and airborne data to improve satellite monitoring of surface air pollution. The Galveston ground site data is part of the 2013 Texas deployment, which targeted Houston for violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Measurements likely include aerosol properties, meteorological variables, and trace gases like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde based on concurrent surface measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of near-surface pollutants based on time-series ground site data.
• Investigate correlations between surface conditions and atmospheric column observations for air quality diagnosis.
• Study horizontal variability and urban plumes in a region with known air quality violations.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the Texas deployment, providing a finalized dataset.
• Integrates measurements from a targeted NASA aircraft campaign (P-3B and King Air) with ground-based monitoring.
• Campaign was conducted over four years across multiple U.S. regions in violation of air quality standards.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Available file formats (BIN, PDF, ISO, HTML) suggest raw or packaged data that may require specialized tools to process.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center, and multiple universities).

Collection Method

Collected at the Galveston ground site during the Texas deployment, employing surface monitoring, aircraft spiral profiling, and remote sensing.

Time Range

2013 (Texas deployment).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:13:06.193204; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Galveston, Texas (Houston region), United States.